COVID-19 virus variants research receives national funding

Faculty of medicine researchers received national funding for work on COVID-19 virus variants.

The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health, announced a total investment of $14.3 million from the Canadian government, through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

This includes $5.3 million in supplementary funding for 90 ongoing COVID-19 projects and $9 million for a new national network that will coordinate and align variants research throughout the country.

Thirteen ongoing projects led by UBC researchers were awarded a total of $939,626 in supplementary funding through the SARS-CoV-2 variants supplement: COVID-19 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity streams.

The Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network, or CoVaRR-Net, will be led by Dr. Marc-AndrÂŽ Langlois from the University of Ottawa. Dr. Langlois and his team will collaborate with the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Lab, the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network, provincial and territorial public health labs, and other national and international bodies.

UBC faculty of medicine co-investigators in the network include Nozomu Yachie, Manish Sadarangani and Terry Snutch.

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During the Canada Post strike announced September 25, 2025, the following measures will be undertaken to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory has transitioned to private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. Results required urgently can be faxed upon request. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy has transitioned to private courier for delivery of medications. We recommend requesting medication at least 2 weeks in advance in case of delivery delays, particularly to rural/remote parts of BC. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

During the Canada Post strike, we recommend that documents be faxed or couriered to our sites, versus utilization of regular mail service

The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
For more details and example reports, please click on the button below

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